Here’s another way to strip a character from a text string, a simpler alternative to the StripCharacter function.
Q: Robert Greiff writes to say that there is a simpler way to strip a character from a text string than the StripCharacter function I described in WAW 4.24. He proposes using the Replace function instead, as in this line of code:
Replace(“##HE#L###L0##”, “#”, “”)
gives “HELLO”
A: He is absolutely correct about this – For the earlier example, I cut down another function, which removes all non-alphanumeric characters from a string (you do need more complex code for that), but for removing a single character Replace is better. For removing any and all non-alphanumeric characters from a text string, here is the original StripNonAlphanumericChars function:
Public Function StripNonAlphaNumericChars(strText As String) As String
‘Strips a variety of non-alphanumeric characters from a text string
‘Created by Helen Feddema 10-15-97
‘Modified by Ruud H.G. van Tol 6-18-99
‘Last modified by Helen Feddema 7-2-99
On Error GoTo ErrorHandler
Dim strTestString As String
Dim strTestChar As String
Dim lngFound As Long
Dim i As Integer
Dim strStripChars As String
strStripChars = ” `~!@#$%^&*()-_=+[{]};:’,<.>/?” & Chr$(34) _
& Chr$(13) & Chr$(10)
strTestString = strText
i = 1
Do While i <= Len(strTestString)
‘Find a strippable character
strTestChar = Mid$(strTestString, i, 1)
lngFound = InStr(strStripChars, strTestChar)
If lngFound > 0 Then
strTestString = left(strTestString, i – 1) & Mid(strTestString, i + 1)
Else
i = i + 1
End If
Loop
StripNonAlphaNumericChars = strTestString
ErrorHandlerExit:
Exit Function
ErrorHandler:
MsgBox “Error No: ” & Err.Number & “; Description: ” & _
Err.Description Resume ErrorHandlerExit
End Function
